"The world's public health resources are misallocated," opined co-author Peter Daszak, executive director of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine at the US-based Wildlife Trust.

"Most are focused on richer countries that can afford surveillance, but most of the hotspots are in developing countries.

"If you look at the high-impact diseases of the future, we're missing the point."

However, Dr Daszak said that the maps were the first to offer a prediction of where the next new disease could emerge.

His colleague, Dr John Gittleman from the University of Georgia's Odum School of Ecology, described the data-set as a "seminal moment in how we study emerging diseases".

"Our study has shown that bringing ecological sciences and public health together can advance the field in a dramatic ways," he observed.

The researchers said that the priority should be to set up "smart surveillance" measures in the hotspots identified on the map.

Dr Daszak explained that logistically straightforward bio-security measures, such as screening people who come into contact with wild birds and mammals in the hotspot areas, could halt the "next Aids or Sars before it happened".

"It simply follows the old adage that prevention is better, and cheaper, than finding a cure.

"If we continue to ignore this important preventative measure, then human populations will continue to be at risk from pandemic diseases," Dr Daszak warned.